but Tinker had
a box of matches, and by lighting one of these at every few yards, they
were enabled to gain some idea of the place they were in.

In this way they penetrated a considerable distance, till arriving at a
kind of wide underground room, the party rested awhile.

Harry Girdwood now proposed to go and explore the further portion of
this subterranean region.

Leaving, therefore, the others resting, he took the box of matches, and
entered the further passage.

He soon found a low rugged opening, from which another passage branched
off.

Going through this, Harry was almost sent falling on his face through
making a false step, for he did not see that this passage lay more than
a foot lower than the other.

Then he struck one of his matches, and by its light perceived that this
passage was lower, narrower, and more rugged and winding than the rest
of the vaults, and seemed to have been hewn out of the earth, rather
than built in it.

"Perhaps this leads to a cave," he thought, "inhabited by robbers or
wild beasts. In that case I shall come off badly. I ought to have
brought Bogey with me; he's ugly enough to frighten any body. Never
mind, here goes."

And grasping his cutlass in one hand, and in the other a piece of
lighted paper, which he had twisted into the form of a torch, Harry
Girdwood marched manfully on.

Grazing his head against a jutting piece of rock reminded him that the
passage was growing very small, and it behoved him to stop.

Suddenly Harry stopped.

He heard voices.

He saw the gleam of a light at the end of the passage.

He was apparently approaching some robbers' lair. Here was a fresh
peril.

But there was still time to draw back from it.

No; urged on by curiosity, Harry determined to see and know the worst.

In a few moments that curiosity was gratified.

He came to a point where the narrow, winding passage terminated,
leading out into a lofty, rugged vault fitted up in rude imitation of a
room.

Here, seated upon the floor in a group were about a dozen men, all
armed, and by their dress and appearance evidently Bedouin Arabs.

Harry was at once reassured.

He knew that the Arabs were enemies to the Turks.

The sharp eyes and quick ears of one of these sons of the desert soon
"spotted" the stranger, and before he could resist or retreat, gave the
alarm.

Two of them seized and secured him.

Harry now feared that his curiosity would cost him dear.

Questione